Saturday, January 28, 2012

27 days

I changed my diet 27 days ago now to a low carb and sugar free diet. I just went cold turkey, from a vegetarian diet prior, which was interesting to say the least. I am basically following the paleo diet these days, tho that's just a label to make it easy to reference the way I am eating. I've heard it called paleo, primal, caveman, and various other things, all being about the same.

My main goal with changing the way I eat was trying to find a way of eating that 1. Made me feel healthy and 2. Made it more likely that we would eat out of the garden.

Some things that I've noticed after changing my diet for 27 days:

1. No more heartburn

Seriously. I used to have heartburn every day no matter what I ate. It seemed like a constant thing that I was just living with. It's gone now, literally overnight. I hope for good!

2. I feel a lot less tired all the time

I don't feel nearly as run down all the time like I used to. Considering that its winter, which is usually a tough time for my energy levels being anything but non-existent, I think that's pretty impressive.

3. I feel leaner

This isn't about loosing pounds, which I have, but about how my body feels. I used to be pretty substantially muscled, which I feel like I've lost over the last couple years. I've been feeling a lot weaker, as well as just kind of generally "puffy." Not bloated, just kind of fluffy. I've lost about 10lbs according to the scale, but I swear I've lost many inches of fluffyness all over my body. I'm hoping to be able to gain back all the muscle I feel I've lost this year. I'm not concerned with what the scale tells me I weigh, but with how "in shape" I feel in general. I've been feeling more and more out of shape the last couple years, which has seemed strange to me considering I feel I am far more physically active these days then I used to be. I blame it on my former vegetarian diet.

4. I don't have a stuffy nose every morning

Not entirely sure what's up here with this. It used to be that I would wake up every morning and desperately need to blow my nose. Sometimes many times throughout the day. I've felt almost constantly stuffy for awhile now, but for some reason that seems to have gone away. I'm not sure what I cut out that caused this, however, I'm happy about it!

5. I'm loosing that constant craving for sugar

Don't get me wrong, I still want to nom down some chocolate hardcore. I've been slowing myself a couple pieces of chocolate at night, as I feel depriving myself completely of the things I love is foolish. It just makes me more likely to binge on an entire chocolate bar (or three!) when I don't allow myself a small controlled amount. It's the taste of the chocolate I want tho, not the sugar. There was a time where I'd crave sugar constantly, and it didn't matter at all what kind it was. Candy, cookies, cake, tons of sugar in my coffee in the morning, I'd even eat brown sugar straight out of the jar! That craving is going away, slowly, but it is going away. These days I still want the sugar, but its a lot easier to ignore.

6. I am shopping for food almost exclusively at the farmers market

I've bought almost everything in the last few weeks that we've been eating at the farmers market here in town. All localy grown meats and vegetables. This gives me great hope that this year we should be able to eat out of our garden as far as produce goes. I am hoping to be able to have the money to join the meat csa that Parker Farms puts out. This is the farm I've been buying my meat from, and it is awesome.

I know there are more things I've noticed in these 27 days, but those are the ones that stick out in my head. I had said originally that I'd be trying this diet for 30 day and then re-evaluate how I felt....but I can tell you 3 days early (and, really even after the first week!) that I don't intend to change the way I eat.